A is for Animals

I am going to give some very BASIC ideas that have a theme for each week. We will be going through the alphabet. These are geared to toddlers. I would love to hear ideas that you may have to go along with these themes. There is a song, a book and an activity for each day and lunch suggestions when I can incorporate them.

Drew has a short attention span. So I keep the learning time to 15 min. But we often sing the songs or read the books over again throughout the day as we change diapers etc. I often start with the song to get his attention. He knows the routine now so when I start singing he either runs to me or scowls at me and keeps doing what he is doing. If he isn't ready, I wait until later. I do play with him in other ways, but I am only typing up what I am actually trying to teach him throughout the week. All playing should really be learning but this is the more intentional aspect. We are posting over the weekend so that you can go to the library and get the books if you wish.

A is for Animals

Zebras, bears and monkeys too,

I love to see them at the zoo.

Songs (If you aren't familiar with these, many can be found on Youtube.)

1. Old McDonald had a farm E-I E-I O

2. The animals on the farm go oink oink oink,

oink oink, oink; oink oink oink

The animals on the farm go oink oink oink,

all through the farm.

Change the animals and the sounds

(Sung to the wheels on the bus)

3. Mary had a little lamb, little lamb little lamb.

Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow.

And everywhere that Mary went, Mary went, Mary went

Everywhere that Mary went the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day, school one day, school one day.

It followed her to school one day which was against the rules.

It made the children laugh and play, laugh and play, laugh and play.

It made the children laugh and play to see the lamb at school.

4. Elephant, big and friendly wrinkled and gray.

(If you don't know this song, go to youtube and type in Barney elephant song to learn it)

5. Five little monkeys swinging from a tree. Calling to the alligator, You can't catch me. You can't catch me. Along came Mr Alligator quiet as can be and SNAP! Four little monkeys...

Books (If you can't find some of these just substitute with other animal books)

1. Curious George Goes to the Zoo by Rey

2. If I Ran the Zoo by Dr Seuss

3. Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle (there are several you could use by Eric Carle

4. Does a Kangaroo have a Mother Too? by Eric Carle

5. Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

Activities

1. Adopt a "pet". Nope not a real one! This will be good for kids that come from homes without a pet. Take a stuffed animal and take care of it throughout the week. Make sure you "feed" it. Walk it outside and pet it. Maybe brush it. Use your imagination.

Or open a zoo. Designate an area for multiple stuffed animals and be zoo keepers for a week.

2. Puppets (just use some paper bags and a marker. If you have yarn and googly eyes, all the better

3. Use your animal puppets to play "who made that sound?" Talk about the sounds animals make.

4. Print out or draw pictures of animals, but cut off their legs and glue them to popsicle sticks or clothes pins. Play "Whose legs are those?"

5. Your animal got sick!! Play vet. Look in their mout, put bandaids on them give them a shot. If you don't have a dr kit, use a pencil for a pretend shot. Listen to their heart with your ears instead of a stethoscope.

4. Pour the peanut butter-chocolate mixture over the cereal and toss evenly, making sure all the cereal gets a good covering.

5. Place the powdered sugar in a large zip-lock type plastic bag.

6. Add the peanut butter-chocolate cereal mixture to the bag, leaving enough room for the puppy chow to be shaken (you may have to divide the mixture into smaller batches, coating one batch at a time).

7. Shake the bag vigorously to evenly coat each piece of the puppy chow with powdered sugar.

8. Once the mixture is fully coated, place in a large serving bowl.

9. Coat any additional pieces by shaking the mixture in the powdered sugar filled bag. Add powdered sugar to the bag as needed until all the mixture is coated.

Comments (15)

Love this! My LO is into animal sounds now so this will be fun. Even my 7 year old will like it because he loves to play along when I'm doing something with the LO. I'm heading to the library today for some of these books. So are we doing the activity for a week?

If you can't find Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton, there is But Not The Hippopotamus by her. And we got All Kinds of Kisses by Tafuri and The Big Wide Mouthed Frog by Larranaga. The frog meets all kinds of animals and there aren't too many words on each page.

Thanks SOOO much! These ideas are great & I'm getting some of these books tomorrow!

A fun arts&crafts idea is to create animals out of your kids' handprints. Get some finger paint, washable markers, and heavy duty paper that can handle the paint.
1. Mix the paints to get a gray color, then paint the palm of your LO's hand
2. Press to the paper; repeat with your own hand & press about an inch from your LO's print; let dry
3. Turn the paper so the fingers of your prints face down (these will be the animal's legs); the thumb will be the head. Decide what kind of animal this will be - elephant for explanation purposes
4. Using gray marker, draw one big floppy ear on the side of the "head" & a trunk coming out; on the palm side, draw a tail going out. Repeat with your LO's handprint; for fun, connect LO's trunk to your tail.
5. Finished! Repeat with a different color & make a zoo of mommy & kid animals! Once Moose & make one, I'll post pics

Niki- That sounds like a great idea! We may have to draw around Drew's hand though. Our Olympics fingerpainting didn't go over so well. He yelled and screamed about the fingerpaint. I am still a little too traumatized to try this soon. lol

LZA, Drew's handimal print looks great! We'll post Moose's tomorrow. I forgot to add a book that Moose loves: My Friends by Taro Gomi. It's a cute board book in which the little girl shows what she's learned from her (mostly animal) friends. It's a regular in our nightly routine.